'Well, I don't know, Emily. You see that we wish to see if there is
anything in the play that a young girl should not hear.'

'Always an excuse to get rid of me. You want to be alone. I never come into
the room that you do not stop speaking. Oh, I can bear it no longer!'

'My dear Emily!'

'Don't touch me! Go to her; shut yourself up together. Don't think of me. I
can bear it no longer!' And she fled from the room, leaving behind her a
sensation of alarm and pity. Hubert and Mrs. Bentley stood looking at each
other, both at a loss for words. At last he said--

'That poor child will cry herself into her grave. Have you noticed how
poorly she is looking?'

'Not noticed! But you do not know half of it. It has been going on now a
long time. You don't know half!'

'I have noticed that things are not settling down as I hoped they would. It
really has become quite dreadful to see that poor face looking
reproachfully at you all day long. And I am quite at a loss to know what's
the right thing to do.'

'It is worse than you think. You have not noticed that we hardly speak
now?'

'You--who were such friends--surely not!'

Then she told him hurriedly, in brief phrases, of the change that had taken